Many of the antioxidant additives available in the retail market are made up of synthetic chemicals. Plants contain numerous biophenolic compounds which are anti-oxidative due to their redox properties; which allow them to act as reducing agents, hydrogen donor, single oxygen quenchers and metal chelators. There are widespread feeling amongst consumers against synthetic chemical additives in foods and high fat content in fried food. It has been reported that, dietary administration of butylatedhydroxytoluene (BHT) to rats caused fatal haemorrhages in pleural and peritoneal cavities and organs; i.e. epididymis, testes and pancreas. Butylatedhydroxyanisole (BHA) too, exhibited toxic and carcinogenic effects. These antioxidants are allowed for use within legal limits and they are often used in the food industries; due to their effectiveness and low cost.
Moreover, cooking oil tends to be absorbed into the food along the frying process. Oil absorption in fried food may be as high as 50% of the food weight, making them calorie dense and may contribute to obesity. Fried food and flying oil are highly prone to oxidation, hydrolysis and rancidity which reduce their organoleptic properties and may be detrimental to health.
Presently, the use of natural antioxidants is somewhat limited in the industry due to lack of knowledge about their molecular composition, amount of active ingredients in the source material and the availability of relevant toxicity data. Natural antioxidants from food of plant origin are presumed to be safe due to their traditional long history of use in food.
Patent application WO2007049227 discloses an edible oil composition, particularly for use in frying and cooking foods, which has a high stability under thermal stress, with less development of degradation products during frying and cooking and less absorption of these degradation products on the surface of the food. The composition consists of a mixture of vegetable oils characterized by a ratio by weight (R) of monounsaturated fatty acids to polyunsaturated fatty acids in the range from 5 to 8, a percentage by weight of saturated fatty acids (S) in the range from 18 to 22%, and a content of antioxidants in the range from 50 to 500 ppm. Advantageously, these antioxidants are produced by molecular distillation from natural lipid starting materials.
Japanese patent application no. 2007054067 relates to a method for frying a food portion in a mixture produced by mixing at least one kind of oil with chemically-modified starch of an amount effective for lowering the oil absorption and further relates to a fried food portion produced by the method and having decreased oil content and acceptable taste, texture and appearance.
Another world wide patent application, WO2007041682, by Ashourian et al. claims a method of making reduced-fat or fat-free fried food products, and products made according to the methods, in which food pieces are coated with an aqueous adhesion mixture including a protein, and an oil absorption minimizing agent including an edible lipophilic material, where the coating is adhered to the food pieces, in order to provide for food products having the texture, flavor, and other characteristics of conventional full-fat fried food products, as according to a preferred embodiment.
A United Kingdom patent application No. 1200450 also discloses an improved cooking oil or fat composition comprising an essential oil formulation except citrus essential oil reduce the pungent odour without imparting flavour to the oil and fat composition.